for her to continue. His eyes drooped with age as his jaw set in furious resignation. Dani had to admit, after a long career in the DEA, he might be entitled to be a bit grumpy.
“What? Did the air suddenly leave that little blonde head of yours?” he barked.
But it did not entitle him to be an asshole.
“Savendra's mother is a real estate agent. I want the addresses of all the houses she's listed as a seller or worked on as the buying agent. I also want a list of the buyers and sellers of all the properties and I want that cross-checked with the names on this list,” she slid a sheet of paper across to him. A list that held the names of a bunch of men in Savendra's uncle's cartel. “Go two degrees deep on all of them for the past three years,” she ordered. Out of the corner of her eye Dani saw Alicia bite her lip to keep from grinning.
“Bullshit,” Diamond exploded.
“There a problem, Dani?” Captain Young stuck his head in. Dani turned and smiled. She'd known Craig ‘Buster’ Young for several years. He was the only person, outside her team, who knew who her real employer was.
“I don't think so, Buster,” she responded with a nod toward Diamond. “Agent Diamond, is there a problem?”
Diamond opened his mouth to protest, saw the warning look on the captain's face, and closed his mouth. “Nope, no problem at all,” he muttered, pushing away from the table.
“Two more months, Alicia,” Buster said apologetically after Diamond was out of earshot. “Two more months until he retires and I promise you'll get some sort of combat reward.”
Alicia smiled and rolled her eyes. “It's fine, Captain. I appreciate the thought, and wouldn't say no to a bonus, but we're all just doing our jobs.”
Buster looked at the two women again and gave a quick smile. “You two will work well together. I take it you gave Diamond a long and solo assignment?”
“It should take him a few days.” Dani grinned as Buster turned and left.
“You know the captain?” Alicia's eyes were bright with interest.
“We've worked together in the past,” Dani replied. She could see the thoughts bouncing around in the agent's eyes but discretion won out and Alicia let it drop.
“So have you been by the house yet? Done any recon?” Alicia asked.
Dani shook her head. “No, I will in the morning.” It was heading on toward six in the evening and Dani didn't need to keep anyone late when the morning would be fine. “Is it okay for a pregnant woman to ride around in a car? I'd love the company.”
“As long as you don't mind stopping for bathroom breaks, I'd like nothing better than to not have to hear Diamond bitching about everything all day.”
* * *
After making plans to pick up Agent Gordon in the morning, Dani checked into her hotel and then headed for Mamarita's. With a little sigh of contentment, she tipped back in her chair on the restaurant's deck and took a sip out of her long-neck bottle, enjoying the taste of the cold, crisp beer and the soothing feel of the setting sun on her face. Judging by the clientele, it was a popular dinner locale—with the military crowd. The place was full of them, both in and out of uniform.
But lost in her own thoughts about the investigation, Dani didn't mind the curious looks pointed in her direction. Taking another bite of her empanada, she stretched out her legs, feeling the night air wash over her bare skin.
“She's gotta belong to someone,” she heard a voice to her right say. He was speaking to a table of four other guys. Dani had noticed the group in her quick survey of the patio when she first sat down. There were two men, probably a couple of years older than her, and three men several years younger. They were definitely from the nearby base, even though not one of them was in uniform—they just had that look.
“Girls like that don't come here without belonging to someone from the base, or hunting for someone from the base,” another one of the young men agreed. Dani had to bite back a grin and stop herself from rolling her eyes at his use of the word ‘girl.’
“She doesn't look like she's hunting anything,” another pointed out.
Dani knew exactly what they were talking about. Other than talking about her, they were talking about the military groupies. Women that looked